As the Bay Area portion of the National Football League season trudged on toward its inexorable — and postseason-free — conclusion, football fans were left with the prospect of a Super Bowl in their proverbial back yard, a shiny palace precious few could afford to frequent, and nothing resembling that precious local angle.

And then along came Contrelle Javon Anderson, giving even the casual Vallejo football fan something to care about in between pricey, tweet-thirsty commercials.

The Bethel High School graduate — C.J. to his family, friends and growing legion of fans from Denver and beyond — takes the Super Bowl 50 field at Levi’s Stadium today with a second chance at the ultimate NFL glory and a wonderfully appealing reason for this city’s football fans to care.

Anderson spent most of Super Bowl XLVII — note to Commissioner Goodell, can we finally lose the blasted Roman numerals? — on the sidelines as the Denver Broncos were being mauled by the Seattle Seahawks, 43-8, on Feb. 2, 2014, in New Jersey.

That, however, was C.J. Anderson, the undrafted rookie.

Spending this past Super Bowl week in the Bay Area has been C.J. Anderson, accomplished Pro Bowl running back and prime time New England Patriots slayer.

That the Patriots aren’t in Santa Clara to defend the title that Seattle coach Pete Carroll was gracious enough to hand them with his head-scratching play calling last February can in significant part be traced to Anderson. Back in Week 12, the Patriots got a significant look at the back of Anderson’s No. 22 jersey on a 48-yard sprint into the end zone for the last of his 113 rushing yards and his second touchdown, an overtime score that made sure the Broncos would be the hosts for the AFC title game against the Patriots two weeks ago. There, Anderson took off on a huge 30-yard run in the fourth quarter of the Broncos’ 20-18 victory, securing C.J. a shot at his first title and his quarterback — Peyton Manning … perhaps you’ve heard of him? — a chance to ride off into the sunset with title No. 2.

To be sure, Denver’s legendary quarterback will be the focal point of the national media’s attention span today. Will what’s left of his body survive an afternoon of relentless defensive pressure, or is it charismatic Carolina quarterback Cam Newton’s turn at glory?

Who knows? As far as we’re concerned, the best story is Anderson — and not just because he once donned a Bethel jersey or has family members right here in Vallejo. Sure, we’re as much a sucker for the local kid makes good story as the next newspaper, but it’s who the kid — check that, man — is that makes the difference here.

By all accounts, from his family to his coaches at Bethel to our own Sports Editor Matt O’Donnell and sports writer Thomas Gase, C.J. Anderson is a good man.

Like Vallejo’s own CC Sabathia in the World Series, Anderson makes it easy — impossible not to, in fact — to root for the local guy.

The good guy.

Go Broncos.

• Putting a bow on our card

The checks have been delivered, so we take this chance to thank you for your generosity in helping us — and in turn our community — with the annual Times-Herald Christmas Card Fund.

Thanks to your donations, were we able to give checks totaling more than $32,000 to the Sparrow Project, Salvation Army Vallejo, Christian Help Center and the Florence Douglas Senior Center.

We weren’t interested as much in scoreboard watching — this year’s total needed this much more to reach this year’s goal or last year’s total, etc. — as we were helping some worthy organizations on the front lines doing God’s work. To attach any “goal” figure to it seemed to imply that there was a possibility that our readers would somehow come up short.

And in a tough economy, you didn’t. We asked, you delivered, and we thank you.